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And the Garmin-ASUS Nuvifone we had all left for dead as far as the United States is concerned is actually going to come to life tomorrow. The announcement was made earlier this week and by ‘announcement’ I mean ‘official announcement’. The handset that has a tale as long as the Lord Of The Rings trilogy is going to head for none other than AT&T. the G60 will set you back $299.99 on a two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. Too pricey you say? You may just as well buy the iPhone 3GS and pair it with a free navigation app, but then there is the lure of new technology for some. Let’s see of the lure is strong enough.

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Asus, AT&T, G60, garmin, Garmin-ASUS, Nuvifone, nuvifone G60

Finally some news of AT&T, an internal list of pre-launch phones has found its way to the interweb, and it talks of good things for all you AT&T folks. According the list, the following handsets are going to be coming our way very soon;

• BlackBerry 9700 in charcoal
• Garmin Nuvifone G60
• HTC Tilt 2, HTC Tilt 2 without camera
• HTC Pure (believe it’s the HTC Snap)

The exact time-line of these handsets isn’t clear, we could be looking at anything between a two weeks to three month wait.

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The Garmin-ASUS Nuvifone is pretty much the topic that hits a nerve with all navigation phone enthusiasts. If you’ve been living under a rock, the reason is the absolute absence of the handset. Even the merger of the companies couldn’t make the handset happen for all its fans. Well, it seems that the unthinkable may just happen, according to a report by TWICE Garmin is “getting very close” to a carrier launch here in the US. And the reason for the delay given by Garmin president and COO Cliff Pemble is;

“Originally we thought we’d launch the phone into the open market, but because of the strong interest we had from carriers, we chose to focus on a carrier-centric launch and meeting carrier requirements is a lot of work.”

So we dare again hope for the Nuvifone.

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After the successful invention of Hardware and software, we now bring you the latest from handset manufacturers; vaporware. So who are the innovators? Garmin-ASUS of course. We’ve been expecting the nuvifone G60 for over a year and a half now, in a conference call with analysts last week, Garmin President and COO Cliff Pemble admitted that the nuvifone G60 will be delayed due to technical issues. Reason cited for the delay was; creating a smartphone such as the nuvifone G60 is “complicated” and that “bringing one to market that’s built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task.” Ok, given that is a valid one, but for the love of all that is good and holy, are 15 months really not enough, and if you really were going to have so many issues, why announce the poor beast so early. The nuvifone G60 is now slated for a 2H 09 release instead of the July debut. And when they say 2H, we know this could be Q4. Like anyone will actually want the nuvifone with the Pre, new iPhone, BlackBerry Tour, etc, etc to choose from.

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It’s been more than a year since we’ve been hearing about the Nuvifone, and now it seems that the Garmin-ASUS Nuvifone G60 is finally near release. Nothing official, but a Reuters article has placed the release sometime in June.  There still isn’t an exact date or price for us but it still seems like the handset will head for AT&T. According to the article, “a source with direct knowledge of the project” has been the source of information that ASUS will issue its first LiMo-powered handset in June. Now sine the M20 runs Windows Mobile, the Linux Mobile handset is definitely a reference to the G60. So how does a handset with LiMo and 3G rate on our scales….very very highly.

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Garmin and ASUS are partnering up. One of their first moves if to re-brand the Garmin Nuvifone as the G60. The companies have both committed to bringing out more devices for us during 2009, and the first installment of this promise will be making an appearance at the MWC 2009 expo (what a surprise!) the Nuviphone lineup is characterized by its focus on navigation, but the big question is still about the OS the new handsets will be running. And a surprisingly unconventional statement from an ASUS chairman tells us; “[ASUS has] expertise in WinMo, Linux and Android, but we believe the software is more important than the OS.”

While these aren’t exactly words of undeniable wisdom, because we DO care what OS our smartphones are running on, but yes, since no OS is a real novelty anymore, the selling point of the phone won’t be the OS. But this just means they have to really throw the ball out of the software park to make the kind of impact they’re claiming here. There had been word earlier that the Nuvifone would rock Android, but changing times call for change of minds, would certainly seem so.    

Garmin has released some final screen shots of its Nuvifone before the final unveiling at the CES. It’s a delicious gallery, with images of what the home screen, web browser, navigation, email, calendar, camera, geotagging support will look like. Now the real test will be if the actual delivers on the hype. The Nuvifone is all set to be the touch screen marvel Garmin plans it to be, pairing a cool mobile web-browser with a smart looking personal navigator. It’s also the first 3.5G mobile phone.

The big guys at Garmin are all excited about their maiden venture into Smartphone-land. “The Nuvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO. “This is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for — a single device that does it all.”

The Nuvifone will also feature a 3.5-inch touchscreen that will display a trio of primary icons, Call, Search and View Map, along with an internet browser, HSDPA support and preloaded maps of North America and / or Eastern and Western Europe. Also, it houses “millions” of POIs, gives turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions and will be Garmin’s first device to include Google’s local search capability. No idea about pricing so far. Now feast your eyes on all the cool screen shots.

Home Screen

Browser

GeoTagging

Camera

Navigation

Here’s another company that wants a piece of the Windows Mobile pie, Mio. The company that is better known for manufacturing consumer GPS products is now developing its own 3.5G Windows Mobile Touch screen (yes touch screen) handset. Considering how PDA’s are becoming the norm rather than the exception, there’ll be more new entrants over the next year.

It seems that the company plans to compete with Garmin Nuvifone since it will be making the launch of its set in the first quarter of 2009. Details on the presumably GPS-centric phone include a 3.5G chipset from Qualcomm, the proprietary “Spirit” touch user interface and a 3.2MP auto-focus camera.

This is not Mio’s first attempt at a GPS PDA phone as it already has a few of Windows Mobile handsets like the recent A502 and 702. This latest phone however, may push Mio’s handset line into brighter light because of the sizzling 3.5G connectivity instead of Mio’s previous EDGE-only offerings. Mio is also expected to launch a GPS-enabled MID (Mobile Internet device) by the end of Q1 2009. If things go as planned, no hitches no glitches, and Mio doesn’t get beaten up badly a la Nuvifone, then it will definitely be making some impressive offerings come early 2009 that may boost its market share while posing a serious problem for Garmin.